I agree with this author’s premise that some, not all, on the political left as well as on the right, hate Hillary Clinton because of underlying misogyny. Many (on the right) hate President Obama because of underlying racism. Electing our first African-American president revealed the underlying racism that still exists in our country. If we elect the first female president, our culture’s underlying misogyny will be exposed. The entire article while long, is worth the time at globalcomment.com/, “Where The World Thinks Out Loud.”

Disclaimer: I am caucusing for Hillary Clinton because I believe that electing the first female Democratic, progressive feminist president would create another kind of political revolution that could change politics and change the world. I believe that those on the progressive left who join in the villification of Hillary, are wrong about what she would be like as president.

“It” is Hillary-hate. It is the tendency for people to decide, at regular intervals, that Hillary Clinton is not a mainstream Democrat who’s carved out a groundbreaking career in politics, but a blood-drenched, boner-killing, venom-dripping hellbeast who is out to destroy America.

You know Hillary-hate. You’ve seen it before: It’s Tucker Carlson proclaiming that “when she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs.” It’s Chris Matthews scolding Clinton, when she criticized Bush’s homeland security spending in 2005, by saying that “you look more witchy when you’re doing it like this.” It is sainted progressive icon Jon Stewart getting huge laughs, off a shot of Clinton smiling politely, with the line “that look is where boners go to die.”

Hillary-hate is Nation contributing editor Doug Henwood, greeting Clinton’s candidacy, this time around, with a book cover in which she is portrayed as a murderer aiming a gun at either (a) you, the reader, (b) the Democratic party, or quite possibly (c) Democracy itself.

I do not object to Hillary-hate because I always agree with Clinton, or because I am committed to unthinking defense of her every word and move. I even acknowledge that there are valid reasons to dislike her… What I oppose is Hillary-hate. I oppose misogyny. And I do it because I know, as sure as I know anything, that what men say about Hillary is what they’ll say about other women, what they’ll say about me..

Clinton has a feminist record. In fact, it’s been the primary source of much hate against her, starting in 1992, when Pat Buchanan riled the fears of the Republican base at the RNC by pointing to her agenda of “radical feminism.”

She is a strong defender of reproductive health care: Planned Parenthood hailed the announcement of Clinton’s candidacy, in a press release proclaiming that “there has not been a candidate for president with a stronger commitment to women or a clearer record on behalf of women’s health and rights,” and she has been the first candidate to bring up the attempts to de-fund Planned Parenthood in both Democratic debates. She has consistently and uniquely centered the role of women and girls in foreign policy, beginning with her historic 1995 speech in Beijing — “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights” — and continuing throughout her time as Secretary of State.

She has worked to frame gun control and police violence as women’s issues; she is the only candidate so far to make the domestic violence crisis part of her platform, advocating to close loopholes that allow domestic abusers and convicted stalkers to obtain guns. And on the topic of violence against women — she has been actively campaigning to address transgender rights and needs, including what she has called “the crisis of transphobic violence.”

(I like Sanders’ record on certain feminist issues, but for all his strengths, he seemingly subscribes to the old-school lefty theory that class is the determining factor in all oppressions — an approach that tends to invariably marginalize issues of identity as “less important,” and which much feminism, including socialist feminism, has been built around refuting.)

The current Hillary-hate is an overture: A fraction of the sheer tonnage of misogyny and dishonesty that’s going to come if and when she wins the nomination. Hillary Clinton has already been the subject of over $1.8 million worth of attacks from PACs — more than any other candidate.

Republicans know she can win, and they know that Hillary-hate is their best, possibly only weapon.

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